Giving Opportunities

CAMPAIGN LAUNCHES IN NYC’S TIMES SQUARE

The public phase of Visions of Excellence: A Campaign for Iona’s Library (VOE) was launched Tuesday, December 12, 2006 at the Nasdaq Market Center in Times Square. The event was hosted by Nasdaq President and CEO Robert Greifeld ’79 and his wife, Julia ’79. The Nasdaq site, a far cry from the familiar image of the ticker-tape strewn trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange, is almost a silo-shaped building equipped for events involving stage lights and television cameras. Electronic projections of stock prices are evident to passers-by, as the building’s first two floors are top-to-bottom windows that look out into the heart of Times Square.

Those windows and projections of Iona’s campus and campaign logo served as backdrops to the formal program, as speakers sought to remind attendees why a campaign for the Iona library is important to the future of the College. “The library is the last piece of the master plan we created in 1995,” said Iona President James A. Liguori, CFC. “It’s the only building on campus that is not as elegant as those of our competitors, and it is the absolute, quintessential center of academic life.”

“Ryan Library was built 60 years ago,” said board of trustees chairman Patrick Lynch ’59, “and it really needs some help. It’s not just shelving; it’s moving the library into the digital age, with room for classroom space for collaboration between students.” Lynch remarked that though the “quiet phase” of the campaign has brought in $5.2 million, “there’s still more to go.”

People often think, said Bob Greifeld, “we are solely responsible for our own success,” discounting the important roles played by “parents, family, friends, spouse and education. If it were not for Iona, Julia and I wouldn’t have met; we wouldn’t have become the people we are today. It is our satisfaction to support Iona as it embarks on this new, exciting phase of its development.”

If you would like to contribute to Visions of Excellence, or for more information, please call the Campaign Office at (914) 637-7739 or e-mail atorigian@iona.edu.